U.S. stock index futures jumped on Thursday, with those linked to the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbing 2% after the Federal Reserve started its easing cycle with a jumbo 50-basis-point cut to interest rates, aiding a soft landing for the world's biggest economy.

Rate-sensitive growth stocks that have led much of this year's rally such as $Microsoft ( MSFT ) , $Meta ( META ) and Alphabet advanced 2% in premarket trading.

Market Snapshot

At 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 507 points, or 1.21%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 92.75 points, or 1.63%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 422 points, or 2.16%.

Pre-Market Movers

Enphase Energy rose 2.3% and First Solar rose 4.8% after the Fed cut interest rates. Solar companies are seen as beneficiaries of lower borrowing costs. Demand for solar products took a hit amid an environment of higher rates.

Nvidia rose 3.3%, Micron Technology was up 2.6%, Advanced Micro Devices rose 3.6%, and Broadcom gained 3.3% as chip makers jumped after the Fed slashed rates.

Tesla shares were up 3.1% at $234.25. A rate cut at the higher end of expectations should help car stocks. Lower interest rates make cars, which tend to be bought with financing, more affordable, reducing pressure to cut prices and boosting demand.

Hot Chinese ADRs jumped Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in four years. Expectations are also high China ’ s central bank will cut its own benchmark rate Friday to boost its struggling economy.  JD.com, XPeng rose over 6%. Alibaba rose 4%.

Mobileye Global was rising 8.5% after Intel said it currently has no plans to divest a majority interest in the autonomous-driving company.

Steelcase was falling 7.2% after the office-furniture company reported second-quarter revenue that missed analysts ’ estimates and forecast third-quarter revenue of between $785 million and $810 million, below estimates of $812.1 million.

Progyny, which handles fertility-care-insurance coverage for employers, plunged 24% after the company said in a regulatory filing that it was notified by a significant" client that the client will be terminating a services agreement, effective Jan. 1. The client accounted for about 670,000 members as of June 30, and made up 12% of Progyny ’ s revenue for the first six months of the year. Progyny continues to anticipate an increase in its overall member count in 2025.

FedEx, the shipping and logistics company, was rising 1.5% ahead of the release of fiscal first-quarter earnings after the closing bell Thursday. Analysts expected FedEx to report earnings in the period of $4.75 a share on revenue of $21.87 billion. A year earlier, the company earned $4.55 a share on revenue of $21.7 billion.

Darden Restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, rose 7.3% after backing guidance for fiscal 2025 adjusted profit of $9.40 to $9.60 a share even as fiscal first-quarter earnings were lower than expected.

DoorDash was up 3.6% to $137.30. Analysts at BTIG upgraded shares of the food-delivery company to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $155.

Market News

Apple Gets EU Warning to Open Up iPhone Operating System

Apple Inc. has been warned by the European Union to open up its highly guarded iPhone and iPad operating systems to rival technologies, or eventually risk significant fines under its flagship digital antitrust rules.

EU watchdogs announced under the bloc ’ s Digital Markets Act that Apple must step into line with strict new laws on making operating systems fully functional with other technologies. The Brussels-based authority gave the company six months to comply, or face the threat of future penalties.

Alibaba Accelerates AI Push by Releasing New Open-Source Models, Text-to-Video

Chinese technology company Alibaba released on Thursday new open-source artificial intelligence models and text-to-video AI technology, intensifying its efforts to compete in the booming area of generative AI.

The open-source models, numbering more than 100, come from Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 family, its latest foundational large language model released in May.